A young woman I know is about to graduate from law school with $90,000 in student loan debt – and that’s after she chose the “affordable” state university option. $90,000 is a mortgage – or rather, what she will be paying for decades in lieu of a mortgage. And that’s exactly the problem.| June 23, 2014»Read Full Blog Post(26)

Well, look at this- not only was I right about the reasons for the rescheduling and faking of records, I guessed right on the 2 week deadline.

“According to the audit findings on Monday, a 14-day deadline for providing care to newly enrolled veterans such as those coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan proved 'simply not attainable' due to growing demand and a lack of capacity.

"Imposing this expectation on the field before ascertaining the resources required and its ensuing broad promulgation represent an organizational leadership failure," the audit said of the deadline imposed under Shinseki.”

The deadline was a good faith effort to get needed care to returning soldiers. But not following through on providing the resources made it impossible. Congress needs to adequately fund the Veterans Administration. | June 9, 2014»Read Full Blog Post(5)

Update: Shinseki just resigned. I stand by my post - this will not help. Whatever problem is causing the delays in patient care is not going to be solved overnight now that he's cleaning out his office. And now we get to see yet another partisan fight over his replacement. Ask the people on the front lines of patient care what resources they need to do their jobs and provide those resources.

We do a thing in this country where, when something goes wrong in a government agency, we and our elected officials demand that the highest ranking official be fired. Lop off his head!

In 2009, Governor Jim Doyle signed the indoor smoking ban. Republicans ranted and railed, predicting wide spread closure of bars and restaurants and general state-wide chaos. (This has since been proved completely false, of course – restaurant and bar business is actually up.) One of the chief purveyors of that rant was State Rep. Bill Kramer. It was one of his main points in a Doyle attack speech delivered to the Waukesha Kiwanis Club, of which I was the president at the time.

As president, it was not my job to invite speakers, but it was my job to open the meetings, deliver club news, and welcome the speakers. I did so politely, even when they were there to talk about things I disagreed with – a courtesy that was extended among all members. We had conservative and liberal members, and we worked together to raise money for charity and learn about our community.

Kramer’s speech was the usual political presentation – they’re wrong, we’re right, etc. Nothing newsworthy there. But he got especially agitated about the smoking ban. He was red-face and nearly hysterical, telling us that this was just the worst thing to happen to small business in the history of the state and that “mom and pop taverns” would be forced to close because nobody would go out if they couldn’t smoke.

I raised my hand, and told him that as an asthma sufferer I was looking forward to being able to go to any restaurant, without worrying about smoke. I asked about the employees who are forced to inhale smoke all day or night, etc. He just stared at me. I think that he thought since he was in Waukesha he wouldn’t be challenged on anything. Finally, he told me that it was people like me who hated freedom, that if I didn’t like smoke I should stay home, and that when we had massive job loss because of all the businesses closing it would be the fault of people like me.

But that isn’t the point of this story. What happened at the end of the meeting is.

As I left the meeting, Kramer followed me into the parking lot and yelled to me as I got to my car. He got within inches of my face and started yelling about the smoking ban again, and telling me that I needed to listen to him so he could “educate” me about it. I was shocked. I was the president of the organization he had been invited to speak to and he was screaming at me in the parking lot. I thought he was going to hit me. It got so bad that one of the male members of the club came over and pulled him away from me. When I got in my car I was trembling.

Bill Kramer is a misogynist. I am convinced that is what is at the root of his sexual assault and harassment problems. He cannot handle a woman being his equal, much less his superior. It is why he touched Kelda Roys inappropriately, so she was put in her place, and why he attempted to turn professional staffers into sexual playthings. Does he have even one respectful, healthy relationship with a woman?

Even after this so-called “intensive treatment” from which he was just released, he told a police officer that he didn’t remember fondling one of his victims, but may not have because she had “doctor-enhanced breasts” and he likes natural ones. Seriously.

Republicans have a women problem. And it’s not just the current birth control issue – where prominent party leaders have claimed that women only need birth control because they are “unable to keep their libidos in check” or that the number of birth control pills a woman takes is somehow related to the number of times she has sex – a laughable falsehood that only underscores the complete lack of understanding of female biology.

Republicans have a women problem because despite the gains made by women in their own party they continue to vote people like Bill Kramer into leadership positions. Speaker Robin Vos is doing the right thing now, and he needs to stand firm in words and action. This kind of misogyny has no place in modern society. | March 30, 2014(42)

I am sick of seeing us on the wrong side of Politifact. Stop saying things that get us "pants on fire" or "false" ratings. I don’t want to see anymore of this, this and this.

Yes, I know you want to blame this on Politifact. They are not perfect. Yes, I know that conservatives and Republicans are wrong plenty of the time, too. Paul Ryan just got caught sharing a fake story at CPAC, and most of the “Obamacare nightmares” turn out to be false.

But I am talking to you now. We have spent so much energy throwing numbers at the wall that we have forgotten how to talk about what liberals care about most – people. Real people. | March 10, 2014»Read Full Blog Post(39)

Corey Stingley was a teenager who attempted to steal a couple bottles of booze. He paid with his life. His parents went from cheering at his football games to planning his funeral.

Barbara Olson and Melanie Gretzon are grown women who stole $82,000 in cash from a kids’ soccer club. They are presumably hanging out at home waiting for their lawyers to handle this for them. The suburban housewife version of a timeout. With Chardonnay.

Let’s play “compare and contrast” shall we?

Corey, a 16-year old high school football player, went to a convenience store. His plan was to buy some energy drinks but steal some alcohol. He got caught. Three adult male customers decided to intervene and hold him for the police – and by “hold him” I mean suffocated him to death. Killed for shoplifting.

Barbara E. Olson and Melanie Gretzon are grown women who both, independently, started stealing cash from a soccer club. Olson tried to confess to Gretzon that she stole $12,000. Gretzon told her not to worry about it, but failed to mention that she herself was also stealing. Her theft totals more than $70,000. They both face felonies. No one is calling for them to be killed, as far as I know.

There are different levels of criminal theft. Shoplifting, theft, grand theft, burglary, armed burglary, etc. I doubt many people think the punishment should be the same for all of them. I doubt rational people think that the death penalty should be on the table for shoplifting, or even grand theft. Surely stealing something of little material or even sentimental value should not result in death.

I had a heated argument with some family members about Stingley’s death. (For the record, they started it.) I pointed out that this was a kid being stupid, but he didn’t deserve to die. That the punishment for shoplifting is not death. They said that since he knew what he was doing was illegal he should have anticipated even the worst outcome. That when you put yourself in an illegal situation you get what you deserve.

Does anyone believe that if the soccer parents had killed Barbara and Melanie while they waited for police the public would chalk it up to an unforunate accident? Please.

I do believe that a teenager who shoplifts knows he or she might “get in trouble.” They probably know they might get arrested. I do not believe a teenager thinks he is in danger of being killed if he shoplifts a six-pack to share with this buddies.

The argument that if you do anything illegal you should expect the worst, does not hold up. Not when a kid shoplifting at a convenience store gets killed and adults who steal $82,000 walk away.

What do you think the soccer moms’ punishment will be? A fine? Jail? A few years at Taycheedah?

How much do you want to bet they get a stayed sentence and probation?

Does anyone think they will get the same treatment that a black kid who stole $82,000 worth of anything would get? No way.

The comments on the articles about Corey are as base and racist as you would expect if you spend any time reading the Journal Sentinel comment section. He was a thug, a thief, must have been on something if it took three men to hold him, a white kid would be treated the same way (ha!), the men who killed him should be commended, the people who are objecting are pro-crime, his death was unfortunate, but oh well.

The comments on the article about the women are that this act was low and embarrassing, but most people made excuses for them. They worried about their kids. The non-profit should have had better controls. Maybe they are under stress, or had a mental breakdown.

The punishment does not always fit the crime. Not when we make excuses for white women who steal $82,000 from a charity and defend the murder of a black teenager who shoplifted.| March 5, 2014(45)

Last week a well-known African writer publicly "outed" himself. Binyavanga Wainaina is an internationally respected Kenyan author, founder of an influential literary journal and director of the Chinua Achebe Centre for African Writers. He is also a gay man, something he never shared, even with his mother. Now, at 43, he has come out in piece called "I am a Homosexual, Mum." He tells his personal story, of shame and confusion and loneliness, of eventual acceptance and happiness, despite being gay in a part of the world where it is still illegal, punishable by jail or even death.

He calls himself pan-African, says he belongs to the continent. Says that he will not stop going to the places where his mere existence is illegal. That is a very brave act. And one that could save the lives of other gay men and women in Africa, where societal pressures and cruelty lead many to suicide, just as it does around the world. We are a couple of decades beyond that in America, more open and equal in most of the country than many parts of Africa, but by no means are we done evolving.

What Mr. Wainaina is doing today may feel like what some brave gay Americans did in the 1970s and '80s. Some well-meaning allies want LGBT people to stop publicly coming out because it "shouldn't matter." But it does still matter. It matters as long as young men and women are bullied to death. It matters as long as ignorance controls the lives of good people. It matters as long as young (or old) people struggling to understand their sexual identity think they are alone. And it matters because too many people think they don't know anyone who counts him or herself as a member of the LGBT community..

Mr. Wainaina is not just a boy with "mannerisms" hanging out in a bar or walking down the street where a police officer will arrest him, beat him, jail him. He is a prominent public figure, and if the police hesitate to harass or arrest him he has made a very important point. Suddenly, anti-gay people will not be able to say they know no homosexuals, or that gay people are somehow inferior -- it's too late for that. Too many African people already respect and admire him.

Russia, like some African nations, has a long way to go to treating their gay citizens equally. The mayor of Sochi actually said that they don't have gay people in his city. Then he back-tracked and said maybe they do but doesn't know any. Guess what mayor, you probably do. And maybe if a few prominent Russian gay people came out it wouldn't be so easy to dismiss them. It will be very interesting to see what happens next week at the Olympics, with the American delegation including several gay athletes and the possibility of more coming out in Russia to make a point.

When a prominent or even beloved public figure stands up and says "I am gay" it forces people to examine their prejudices. And rapidly, very rapidly, American society is moving toward an open and accepting environment where young people won't be shamed and bullied into suicide.

Remember when it leaked that Rock Hudson died of AIDS? It was 1985 and there was general confusion over how such a virile, handsome man could possibly be gay. Then Ellen DeGeneres came out and the earth shook. Her career was temporarily derailed but now she is the most popular talk show host on TV -- and happily married to a woman. When Neil Patrick Harris came out in 2006 there was a little titter because he plays a womanizer on TV, and it was still with the obligatory cover on People magazine. By the time Matt Bomer came out in early 2012 it was with a casual thank-you to his partner Simon and their kids as he accepted an award. A couple eyebrows rose.

We're getting there. Anything we can do to break down prejudices matters. Coming out still matters. | Jan. 29, 2014(12)

One million people lost their unemployment benefits on the Saturday after Christmas. Congress should extend them as soon as possible, not just because it’s the right thing to do for one’s fellow man but because it’s the smart thing to do for the economy. | Dec. 30, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(37)

On the last day of my political theory class (4 years ago) my professor handed out t-shirts. On the back it said "I survived POL321". On the front was only the number 46664.

I was the only one in the class who knew the significance of that number. The professor was suitably horrified (but not surprised, I am sure) and told the students that if they didn't know what it was they should look it up and read about Nelson Mandela.. (And yes, several students said "who?") So tonight I will drink a toast to Mandela, and to Professor Lelan McLemore.

As I write this the GOP controlled Congress (many of whom are drunk, apparently) are in full freak-out mode trying to delay the next phase of the Affordable Care Act. They are panicking because, if you listen to Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota We’re So Sorry) being killed by Obamacare is the “greatest fear Americans have.” (I thought it was gay marriage – guess not.)

This is ridiculous. Hey media – did you think to look into Massachusetts, where Romneycare (as it is called there) has been their version of universal health insurance for seven years? Yes, in Massachusetts 98% of adults and 99% of children are not, I repeat, NOT, suffering and dying from the scourge of having health insurance. They are enjoying coverage, thank you very much, and not going bankrupt over a broken bone or burst appendix. The state is not collapsing, people are not trying to repeal the law, and there are no death panels in Boston.

We Democrats are having a field day making fun of the Tea Party nut jobs and their pathetic “Obamacare kills people!” rants. But now they are holding the federal government hostage over this and it isn’t funny anymore. Especially because we all know the real reason the GOP is panicking – they are not worried Obamacare will fail. They are terrified it will succeed.

They can see now that by election time next year millions of people will have affordable health insurance who didn’t have it before. Some folks who never thought they could afford basic preventive health care will have it. People who could never go to a doctor because they couldn’t even get an appointment will have peace of mind. And the GOP is angry –so angry! – that our president thinks all Americans deserve affordable health insurance. Or at least that’s what it looks like on the surface.

In reality the problem for the GOP is much bigger – the Affordable Care Act will be popular and will save lives and they will have had nothing to do with it. Nothing but screaming tantrums and threats to derail it in any way they can. Nothing but egregious lies and campaigns of misinformation.

Years from now, say in 2016, when everyone has calmed down and we’re merely working out some kinks, the GOP will have voted 42 (plus) times to repeal the law and even shut down the government over it. How do you think that’s going to play with the 47 million people who have health insurance through the law’s exchanges?

The panic right now, and probably for the next three months, is because once January comes around millions of people will have health insurance because of this law. The calls for repeal will be calls to cancel their health insurance – just yank the rug out from under them. Does anyone really think that’s going to happen? That Speaker Boehner will be holding rallies about canceling the health insurance policies of 47 million Americans? Of course not.

So here it is – October 1, 2013. If you have insurance, you don’t have to do anything. Nothing changes because of Obamacare except that your insurance company cannot drop you when you get sick and they have to give you better benefits. I am sorry that people lied to you and scared you.

If you do not have health insurance currently, through an employer, Medicare or Medicaid, go to www.healthcare.gov and check out your options. There are people who can help you if you have questions.

As for the GOP, you are beyond help in your current state. And your wounds are self-inflicted.| Sept. 30, 2013(65)

So, I was having drinks with friends tonight - one New Friend and one Old Friend. Old Friend says, "Man, you are really getting slammed for your last blog post." I say, "Yes, I expected that. Luckily, the JS Trolls have no bearing on my self worth." Then New Friend asks what we are talking about, and I tell him of the incidents described below. He laughs and says, "Oh, I know what you mean..." and proceeds to tell me about the time that he was driving through Waukesha in his imported luxury car - complete with Obama bumper sticker (apparently those two things don't go together for some people) - and he noticed someone tailgating him. Dangerously close. Laying on the horn. He's wondering what traffic laws he could be disobeyng when the woman pulls up beside him, rolls down the window, gives him the finger, and screams "F**K YOU! F**K OBAMA!" and then cuts him off and continues on her merry way. Welcome to Waukesha! | Aug. 21, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(89)

There has been a source of tension in my household for a while now, and I think it’s about to disappear. My husband has wanted to cut the cord on cable TV for over a year. I have been resisting. But I think I am finally ready.

I like TV, and I am not ashamed to admit it. I like my shows – Major Crimes, Rizzoli & Isles, Perception, Royal Pains, Downton Abbey, House of Cards – they are a lovely diversion after a long and stressful day. I am also pretty deep into a news addiction. But we are paying almost $200 a month for Time Warner Cable (we have no other cable option in our area, we are not situated well for satellite) and we are watching about a dozen out of the hundreds of channels we are forced to pay for. It’s just not worth it anymore, now that there are many other options.

Oh, I know – Time Warner provides so much service! You can get a new cable box for free anytime! That is true, and we do get the pleasure of having to drag the crappy boxes back into the Time Warner store half an hour away several times a year and then stand in line and wait for the sullen teenager to hand us another crappy box. Sorry, I won’t miss that. | Aug. 16, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(12)

I haven’t written anything about Waukesha yet, even though I live there, because frankly, nothing that exciting happens. There is always petty fighting and gossip in the “Historic Downtown” or “Guitartown” or “Close the Streets Every Single Friday Town” or whatever it is called on a given day, but other than that, meh, not that exciting. Until this: | Aug. 2, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(14)

George Zimmerman was found not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin. The discussion of what the verdict means and where we go from here (civil trial, probably) will go on for weeks. We need to be reflective about not just what this particular event means, but about how we deal with people like Zimmerman who see a “suspicious character” in everyone who doesn’t look like them. And how we deal with the increase in gun laws that assume the person wielding the gun is always in the right, always “just defending themselves” from the people they imagine are trying to do them or their property harm. Paranoia can be debilitating; paranoia with a loaded gun is deadly.

Zimmerman may have been found not guilty, but he certainly did cause Trayvon’s death with his actions. The civil trial will deal with that fact. He did not have to kill Trayvon. He did not have to disobey the police. This could have turned out differently, and while other scenarios leave Trayvon alive, most of them would not have left him the same young man he was when he went to get tea and candy.

I was with a group of progressive activists recently when a woman said, “They are calling what’s happening to Wisconsin ‘the New North.’ The New North is just like the Old South.” How perfect those words are for what is happening to our beloved, once progressive state. | June 25, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(26)

I am a firm believer that a lot of political healing could happen in this country if Republicans and Democrats could find even one important issue to come together on. And by “come together” I mean actually have success with – some reform that could pass through Congress (without being reduced to a shell of its original intent) and be signed by the president with members of the GOP and Democrats looking on. It was looking for a minute like immigration might be that thing, but alas, it is already being watered down.

But there is something that I am kind of excited about. My own Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, with whom I rarely agree, is coming out strong on the issue of over-incarceration. Miracle, right? There are proposals here that are supported by both the ACLU and the Heritage Foundation. We shouldn’t let this opportunity wither away.

The press release from his office stated: “Americans are expected to know it is wrong to commit murder or burglary or engage in an act of terrorism, regardless of what the law says. But today Americans must contend with literally thousands of obscure and cumbersome federal regulations, a simple misreading or ignorance of a regulation can land a person in prison.”

Sensenbrenner highlighted a case where an 11-year old girl got in trouble with the federal government by rescuing an injured bird. How many of you have memories of finding a sad little creature and bringing it home to your mom or dad hoping they could nurse it back to health? I do – I bet most of us do. This girl and her mother accidently ran into a state trooper who later tracked down the family and wrote a citation for violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, a crime punishable by jail time and/or a $535 fine.

Sensenbrenner found that outrageous, as do I, as would most reasonable people. PolitiFact rated his claim “mostly false” because the charge was dropped, but I am going to push back on that here. The fact is that the family was tracked down, two weeks after the incident, and presented with a citation by a law enforcement officer. After a discussion with the family the officer canceled the citation – but several weeks later they received an official notice of the fine and demand to appear in federal court. Over a kid and a sick bird. It still must have been an enormous amount of stress for that family.

I don’t care if the charges were eventually dropped, the whole thing is ridiculous and is evidence of the extreme agenda to criminalize every little thing (not to mention overzealous federal agents). There is a place in law enforcement for reasonable judgment, and this was one of them. The trooper should have simply told the family what they should do with the bird at their first encounter and left it at that. Absent evidence of criminal intent, this should have gone no further. But no, we have to have Barney Fife in there literally making a federal case of it.

Another incident was even more egregious in my opinion. An honor student made a mistake with a science experiment (she hadn’t yet shown it to her teacher) and a small “explosion” occurred, blowing up a plastic soda bottle. Kind of like the YouTube videos of people putting Mentos in Diet Coke. Did the school use this as a learning opportunity? No, of course not. That would have been logical and reasonable. They called the police and had her arrested and charged with a felony. Now this honor student is at an inferior school for juvenile offenders. Her life trajectory changed for the worse because she did a school science experiment. This could be an episode of “Really?!? With Seth and Amy” on Saturday Night Live.

Sensenbrenner introduced the Criminal Code Modernization and Simplification Act to reform and recodify Title 18 of the U.S. Code. I think we need to go further and take a long look at why we are so anxious to criminalize misunderstandings, youthful indiscretions and non-violent crime to the point where our jails and prisons are overflowing. The United States contains just 5% of the world’s population but holds 25% of the prison population. That is not acceptable.

The US population is no more violent or criminal than the rest of the world (perhaps even less so) but we build private for-profit prisons and then find ways to fill them up. Non-violent offenders, undocumented immigrants, young people who needed guidance but found guns more easily, even victims of abuse who finally fought back. We toss them in jail and throw away the key, as if that is a solution. That makes money for the folks who own the private prisons, but it costs the rest of us dearly.

People who are in prison are taken out of the economy. They don’t work, they don’t pay taxes, they aren’t consumers. All they do is cost money. We have created a crazy system where more and more people, especially minority males, are simply denied the opportunity to ever become fully functioning members of society. And you can’t sit back in suburbia and pretend this is an inner-city issue. It isn’t. Your tax dollars are paying more and more every year for inmates who could pay their debt to society and then come back to being a member of it. It would lower the cost of the prison system and raise tax revenue. That would make everybody happy, right?

Milwaukee Inner-city Congregations Allied for Hope (MICAH) launched a campaign last fall to try to make progress on this issue, and the ACLU continues to fight over-incarceration and the school-to-prison pipeline. I honestly hope that groups like these reach out to Republicans like Rep. Sensenbrenner and he to them. We need to stop this pattern where politicians are afraid to be seen working on an issue that is outside the partisan box. | June 3, 2013(10)

The authors eloquently remind us why “…all Americans, from the most liberal to the most conservative, should closely guard their First Amendment rights, and why giving the government too much power to limit political speech will inevitably result in selective enforcement against unpopular groups.”

They go on to explain the complicated connection between Citizens United, the First Amendment, and the targeting of tea party groups by the IRS. The IRS should not be targeting tea party groups any more than they should be targeting the ACLU, the Sierra Club, or Planned Parenthood. Corporations, along with their shareholders, donors and employees, do deserve first amendment protection. | May 13, 2013»Read Full Blog Post(6)

Editor's Note: Purple Wisconsin is a collection of community bloggers with views from across the political spectrum. The Journal Sentinel hosts these blogs as a way to encourage thoughtful debate about the important issues facing Wisconsin and the Milwaukee region. The opinions voiced here are those of the individual bloggers alone; they are responsible for their posts. The Journal Sentinel does not edit or direct the bloggers in any fashion.

Kristin Hansen is a former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel community columnist and professional fundraiser. She will share opinions liberally sprinkled with facts and hopes to find that sweet spot where liberal and conservative ideas could live in (relative) harmony. You will find ideas here about civil liberties, civil rights, equality, and ethics with some philosophy, politics and economics thrown in for fun. Kristin lives in Waukesha, works in Milwaukee and Madison, and suffers from political whiplash less than one might think.